EAT Cambridge '16: Experiential Future Dining

EAT Cambridge is well and truly underway! It opened on Saturday 7th with the main event, and boy did it kick off with a bang. A rammed Corn Exchange, plenty of stalls, a lot of amazing food and so many lovely people.

I was down there with The Gogs (a.k.a where I work) and it was an amazing experience. Whilst the day was long (5:30am start, 6pm finish!), hot and tiring, it was also fun, interesting and really rewarding. Being part of The Gogs is great in general, and it was even better at the main event where we were one of the sponsors. People know who we are and love our products, from cheese to meat to cake, and I absolutely loved promoting and selling them. As the only one representing the kitchen department of The Gogs I got to solely promote our homemade sweet treats, namely our two gluten free brownies - orange and plain - and our boiled fruit cake. Having also made around 60-70% of the brownies I was selling, it was really rewarding and humbling to hear praise for their flavour, texture and their gluten free quality. It not only made me feel special as someone just starting out in the baking industry, but made the whole kitchen staff feel good about all the hard work we put in everyday to make our products the best.

The main event is just the beginning of EAT Cambridge, though. Throughout the two weeks of foodie fun there are so many great events going on, and just a few nights ago I attended an amazing one with  a fellow blogger friend Jess, and I will never forget the evening!

The event?

The Rooftop Supper Club: Experiential Future Dining.

If you have no idea what that means, don't worry. I didn't either at first, but all became clearer reading the description on the website: we invite you to an experimental five-course meal. Each course will look to embrace a different sense and allow you to use our 3D food printer to design and print edibles for each plate.

Immediately I was hooked on the idea of eating 3D printed food, and myself and Jess booked our tickets straight away. I love food technology and food innovation and in the weeks leading up to the event I got more and more excited about experiencing something so unique.

The evening started well, with a Prosecco on arrival, 3D printed raspberry floating inside. This was our first taste of what was to come over the course of the meal, and our first look at a piece of 3D printed food. And what it looked like was a raspberry. A little paler than one you'd buy in a supermarket, but unmistakably a piece of fruit. Once the prosecco was gone and you could finally try your first piece of 3D printed food, it tasted like a raspberry too. The texture was the only thing you could really notice was off. Although jelly like and gloopy, the raspberry flavour was definitely there, and I was really excited for the rest of the evening to unfold.

The first course came out and I was instantly captivated. A cold mushroom soup, parmesan biscuit and a 3D printed truffle were placed in front of us, their presentation clearly thought out. Myself and Jess on the way home from the event discussed how it would have been so easy for the creators of this event to let the non 3D printed elements of each dish be bland, boring and uneventful, but just from the first course you could see they made a great effort in all areas. Because of this, everything tasted wonderful, especially that 3D printed truffle. Again, the texture and look of it wasn't the same as a real truffle, but the flavours were gorgeous and spot on. The object of the evening was clearly not to replicate food in 3D printed form, but to focus on the unique technology being used and how amazing the flavours were as complements to real food.

Next to be served was a fabulously plated 'radish garden' with a 3D printed snail made from "liquid smoke," with a 3D printed shell (inedible, but 3D printed nonetheless!).

The "liquid smoke" is what really grabbed me here, and I was pleasantly surprised by the barbecue flavour. I imagined a deep, smoky, charcoal flavour, and instead got a sweet and rich smoked barbecue. It was very reminiscent of a rack of ribs done on the barbecue in the summer, and as someone who isn't a huge barbecue sauce fan, this was actually my favourite dish of the evening, both visually and taste wise.

For the third course, and the first plate of hot food, there was monkfish wrapped in parma ham with a pistachio core, with either a 3D printed side of lime, coriander and chilli or black garlic. I had the lime, coriander and chilli, and it was so fresh. The chilli wasn't 100% there, so the lime and coriander really stood out as ripe, fresh flavours. It went so well with the monkfish and I really liked how the textures all came together.

A nufood 3D printer on display.

Halfway through the evening now, I was utterly mind blown by what I had been eating. To be getting such strong, recognisable flavours from something 3D printed was impressive beyond belief, and difficult to wrap your head around to be honest! There was clearly some amazing innovation going on here, and everyone was loving experiencing something new.

Onto course number four: venison with purple sprouting broccoli, asparagus, 3D printed strawberry and lime and 3D printed coriander and mint. As a great lover of red meat, I was head over heels in love with the venison and really loved the flavour combinations going on on the plate.

I would never have placed strawberry and lime with venison, but it worked so well and added a great splash of red to the plate. In a normal restaurant, your eye is often drawn to the main element of the dish such as meat or fish, but often on this night you were drawn straight to the 3D printed element, which is a testament to their success. To want to eat that before that gorgeous piece of venison is a big deal for me. I love meat but was more in love with the 3D printed gems!

Now dessert is where it got quite fun. A weird combination of New York cheesecake, two little red pills and something wrapped in foil was presented on a plate, to share between two. The explanation was: start with the cheesecake, then suck on the red pill, known as a miracle berry, until completely dissolved, then cut into the salt baked lemon wrapped in foil and eat the lemon inside. The cheesecake was gorgeous with a nice surprise of an edible flower inside, but the main event of this dish was that miracle berry and salt baked lemon.

Once you've eaten the little pill and let it run around your mouth and dissolve, you eat the lemon and it tastes not even a tiny bit sour! The flavours are changed from bitter and face-scrunching to sweet and pleasant. You could eat a whole lemon without flinching, and whilst it is a very weird sensation, it's a fun one too and something you should definitely try if you ever have the chance!

I'd also recommend, if you ever have the chance as well, trying 3D printed food. I'm still not really sure how the whole thing works, other than infusing flavours into liquid droplets that form a shape based on a design drawn in an app.

The nufood 3D printer in action

I'm not a techno whiz in any way (can you tell!?), and I'm still in awe of the technology and the flavours and things it created throughout the evening. When I asked the founder of the company "Why food?" she said it came from a desire to try 3D printing with liquid, something rarely done, if done at all. The technology is obviously still in its infancy and I feel privileged to have been able to try it at this stage and experience a unique technological innovation to do with food. I'm always on the look out for the latest food trends and the next big thing in food, and this could be it. A meal is so much more special with a 3D printed element, and there is so much potential for it to turn into something you see on more and more plates in more and more restaurants. I'll be raving about the fantastic time I had for years to come and I hope to try it again in the future when there really could be a true replica of a truffle on the plate! Until then, I'll have fond memories of an extraordinary night.

What's your favourite innovation in food? Would you ever try 3D printed food?